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Cleanup Crew

Date: August 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Happy Thursday everybody! Only a couple of days until the weekend, right?? I’m thinking this weekend might be a good time to go up to the city (San Francisco), try out the frozen yogurt place I had no appetite for post-race, and drive the route of my next half marathon! It’s hilly-I want to know what I’m getting myself into!

Yesterday was a good day, AM spin-VERY early. I am no longer ever having dark chocolate before bed-I was seriously dragging! I spent the rest of the morning finishing up my final presentation for Health Psychology. I did a study on the effects of aerobic exercise versus yoga on reducing stress. Fun fact-in Psych studies, to induce stress, you make your participants count backwards from 400 by 7s, yelling at them to go faster and making them start over if they’re wrong. Fun!

Lunch was a basic one-tomato soup with cheddar (seriously SO good) with a side of popcorn. That popcorn is kind of significant-it was some of the swag I got from my half marathon’s expo!After my 3 hour class, I hustled my way over to Crossfit for a 6:15 class. It was a decent WOD-not a lot of heavy lifting so not one of my favorites. We did kettlebell clean and jerks, which were really weird. I’ve never done them before so I stuck to a low weight; I didn’t want to smash my wrists!

I stayed after class to clean up the box. That was my first day of cleaning. It’s really not too bad-wipe stuff down, sweep, mop. I actually really like just being around the box/fitness environment. There was a small WOD going on while I was cleaning, so I got to watch them suffer. It’s a cool way to get to know the trainers better (and earn a free membership!). It took me about 45 minutes.

At that point, I was more than ready for dinner! We had asparagus with garlic aioli, plus cornbread (with whipped butter and honey). The main dish was a butternut squash-chicken vegetable soup, recipe found here.

This morning I was awake early for the kitten nursery morning shift! And since you obviously need to see kitten pictures…

You know how I’ve said many times before how I’ve picked out which kittens I’m dying to adopt? Well this time I REALLY have. The difference is this one kitten really does need me. He’s a little black kitten. He’s by himself, and he’s misunderstood. (Cliche, right?) To some he may seem like an anti-social cat, but I know better. He demonstrates all the personality facets of a typical black cat. On his sheet, someone notes he doesn’t like to be touched, and is kind of antisocial (TYPICAL black cat). He seems quiet and withdrawn, but given my black cat experience, that’s not exactly it. I’m worried that this behavior might not be conducive to future adoptions, or future success in his adoptive family. Even worse, he would really do better in an environment with fewer variables-different people caring for him everyday, people with not enough time. He’s losing weight, which is bad. I think this is because people are not putting enough time into him. I had him out for at least 45 minutes today. He doesn’t eat a ton on his own, so I had to syringe feed him. He’s fussy but eager to eat; if one didn’t have enough patience he’d be written off. In addition, he kept wriggling away while I was feeding him to wash his face…yeah that’s a black cat all right.

As for anti-social? Not exactly-he’s a sweetie if you get to know him better. I tried to feed him in my lap, and that didn’t work because all he wanted to do was sit on my shoulder. I’m not sure how I’d be able to at least foster him, but he needs something.

In other news, I had full intentions to work out after the kitten nursery, but instead went to Whole Foods and ate a muffin. And bought cinnamon kettle corn-ADDICTIVE. In my defense, I probably needed a rest day anyways.